Taking the Siskiyou Challenge

OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh!

It's been six years since I ran my last marathon, a couple since I've jogged religiously, but guess who's running an 11K in six weeks???

That's right. Yours truly.

The Siskiyou Challenge is hitting the town and I'm on a team.

In fact, I'm on a team with some of my favorite people. Mick is riding the road race leg, his bro Kai is running the 5 K leg (and sponsoring it through his Endo practice!) and Kai's bro-in-law Garth is paddling the kayak leg. And a new friend, Mike Jack, is riding the mountain bike leg.

Because Kai's Endo practice is sponsoring the team, I think our logo should be ROOT FOR US! (C'mon, tell me you like that in the comment section.)

So far in my first week of training, I've run 10 minutes, 8 minutes + 17 minutes (one day), 12 minutes, and today, drumroll please... 20 minutes.

I've only got about 45 more minutes to tag on to that last time until I'm at 11k.

Obviously, I've got my work cut out for me!

But I'm hopeful. Training for marathons, into week 4 or so I was up to 7 miles. I'll follow that schedule now.

So come September 25, ROOT FOR US!

**
Oh, and root for Farm to Schools. The $ raised here supports local farmers getting their fresh foods to school lunch rooms. Better for everybody.

Best House Guest Yet

Look who came to town!

Back in June, we were lucky enough to have Mimi, Mick's 94-year-old grandmother, visit us here in Ashland. She flew out from Newark, Delaware, with Mick's parents on their return from a Revolutionary War trip.

When Mimi arrived, she first stayed at Kai and Dana's (as did Mike and Jan), where she spent an afternoon at OSF's production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" with me, and then attended two days of birthday parties with verve and grace. (Indi turned 9; Jude turned 6.)

Everything about Mimi is balanced: she has a tremendous amount of energy and wit; she also can relax and chill without a lot of fuss. Case in point: she let me take this picture of her lounging on the couch one evening, even when I said I hoped to use it on the blog. No problem, she says. I love a woman like that.

After a long weekend at Kai and Dana's, she went with Mick and the kids and me, as well as Mike and Jan, up to Crater Lake for a night in the Crater Lake Lodge. When we got there, IT WAS SNOWING.

After a fancy dinner and a night in the lodge, though, it was gorgeous and clear the next day.

Mick left that morning at 4:45 (yeah, 4:45 AM, folks) so he could head to Bend for a couple days of company training sessions. So Mike and Jan and the kids and Mimi and I drove around a portion of Crater Lake looking for the campground Mimi had taken her boys to fifty years ago (we never found it) and checking out the amazing Crater Lake Naturalist Center. There, they had awesome displays and videos revealing exactly how Crater Lake was formed and just what the chances are of another volcanic eruption in the chain.

From there, we drove to Bend (Redmond, actually) where Mick's company put us up in a condo at a resort. Mike and Mimi drove to see Mt. Bachelor one day (and they saw it from many sides!) while Jan and the kids and I hung out at the resort and swam. (Mick was in class.)

After a couple nights there, we all headed back to Ashland. Mike and Jan and Mimi and Dane drove together and went to the High Desert Museum outside of Bend. Aubrey and Mick and I hit the Newberry Volcanic Monument.




And Mick finally passed the kidney stone he'd been working on the past couple of days.

The next day was Father's Day. Mick and Kai and Mike (and Garth!) took in a Britt Fest concert, featuring Steve Martin's Blue Grass band.

Other than that, we just sat around having fun. We played cards with Mimi (a serious Rite of Passage for a Reynolds kid)...

Lounged on the hammock with the cousins...

Sat in the living room and played pink guitars...

And got a lotta love.

THE WAR ON VACCINE: On PBS's Frontline tonight

Ashland is noted for having one of the highest populations of parents who choose not to vaccinate their children. I believe the number is at about 1/3.

Personally, I've had my kids vaccinated, but I think the debate is a really good one to follow. The more we research and learn, the better informed we can be in the long run.

My friend Jennifer Margulis, who's an award-winning journalist here in Ashland, has opted not to vaccinate her children. And I'm incredibly impressed that she agreed to this Frontline interview in order to further the conversation about vaccination.

Watch PBS tonight on your TV or online to learn more about the vaccination debate.

HALLOWEEN FRIGHT '09

The festivities started out on Friday afternoon with costumes and a Ghost Walk at the kids' school. They begged me to come dressed up and in the spirit of things, so I pulled together this little number in a matter of minutes. It's amazing what you can do with a brown Crayola marker, pieces of wig hair, and a little Caro syrup.

It's also amazing how easy it is to gross your kids out and have them beg you to take off your costume and do something different.

So, the next day I changed my get-up, but Mick absconded with my idea and made it his own. Talk about gross.

That's right, ladies. I married for love.

But here are the real stars of the show:

Cleopatra

Cleopatra and the Grim Reaper (with Avery the Pirate)

Grim Reaper and Jack Sparrow pre-parade.

Cleo with Felicity, the Monarch Butterfly

with Indi the Geisha

and, of course, there was Elvis (Logan)

Funkity Ann (Kerry) with Val Pal

The Geisha Girls and a couple of Ninjas (cousins, Auntie, their Grammy)

Scary brothers.

and the stunning hodge-podge

of Halloween Fright.

The Naked Lady of Assland

I haven’t seen her yet. She’s elusive, like the wind – but not like the wind, because she’s riding her bike down Main Street. Topless. In a G-string.

Local lore says when she arrived in town, fully clothed, she stood her bike up outside the little police department office. She walked in and up to the counter, asking what the local exposure laws were here in Ashland. When she learned there was no town ordinance on nudity – other than that you can’t expose your genitals – she ran outside onto the little patch of lawn and tore off her shirt and did a head stand.

My brother-in-law saw her this summer on a sunny afternoon, riding her bike along Siskiyou Boulevard. She was just riding along when she stood up on her (moving) bike, hiked her G-string up as high as she possibly could, stretched her hands in the air and shook her breasts side-to-side hollering “wooooooo hoooooooo!”

Later that month he saw her in a bike shop, fully clothed – probably one of those No Shirt, No Service signs at the window – checking out bike horns. He wasn’t sure what she finally settled on, but evidently she needed a little honk to accompany the woo-hoo.

I’ve really wanted to see her myself. Imagine the, um, nerve (you know what I wanted to write there, don’t you?) it would take to draw such attention to yourself! And to possibly ruffle so many feathers! I know I’d have no interest in doing it myself, and I’m not exactly sure how I feel about my kids grappling with the image (although I’m actually more okay with it than not), but I indeed admire her moxy.

So, because I haven’t seen her and because she's so intriguing, I looked her up online to see what her deal was, and here’s what I’ve since learned:

She’s Naked for Peace. She agrees there are probably other things she could do to promote peace, but this is the one that speaks to her. And, when you really think about it, being naked is a very peaceful gesture, isn’t it? How much more vulnerable can you make yourself at that point? I know I wouldn’t assault or attack if I were naked. What if all world leaders and soldiers had to engage with each other naked? Wouldn’t that b… Okay, I’ll stop there.

She changed her name from Jen to Gen because it has a better vibe.

She recently moved to Portland – that’s why I haven’t seen her! I had a feeling she’d left town, but I think I’d kind of hoped she’d gone someplace sunny, like Scotsdale, someplace where she could really be a mover and a shaker. Portland seems like a drippy gig for your droopies if your goal is to ride naked for peace.

Alas, she’s practical. Portland peops won’t peek at her peeps much this winter. Turns out she won’t bother to ride topless if it’s just too nippy out.

* * *

So who knows if I’ll ever get to see the Naked Lady of Ashland nee Portland nee ___. Maybe she was just passing through on some sort of nudie World Peace tour and I missed my chance.

I will say this, though, about her: Even if what she’s doing is considered socially unacceptable, and even if I’d probably never in a million years consider riding topless through Ashland myself, she represents something I’m drawn to.

She’s free. She’s fluid. She’s not confined to worrying about whether she fits in.

She’s a child running naked through the sprinkler; she's siblings in the tub, wrestling and throwing suds at each other; she’s college pals tearing off their clothes, running and somersaulting through the air off the end of a rickety old lake dock.

To put it in peaceful terms, she's just hanging out.

Thanks for coming to see us, Mema and Poppa! And Happy 25th Anniversary
And nice job surviving the entire glass of Aubrey's root beer in your lap at dinner, Poppa...

And we're glad you cheered for all of these: soccer games, Dana's birthday, Mick's clinic, and the hot tub.Come back soon!

Walker's Walkers Recognized

(You can imagine the restraint it took to not write 'Wecognized' up there.) So here you have it, folks, all the walking I gushed about in the post below is officially validated on the front page of the October 8, 2008, edition of the Ashland Tidings.

Yup, Aubrey made the paper again, and I got in there, too. Yesterday was National Walk or Bike to School Day, so the press was on hand to get the low-down. Aubrey and I are not interviewed in the article, just photographed. She's the one wearing her handmade variegated scarf, I'm the one with the cat around my neck.

The caption: Students and parents visit the snack and prize table this morning at Walker Elementary School after taking part in International Walk to School Day.

Go here to read the article.

BRIEF LIFE/JOB UPDATE FROM THE ROAD

We've been on the road for a week and a half. Mick graduated the 15th, we left for Disneyland the 17th with the kids when we got his PASSING boards scores (the last hurdle of graduating -- it took us only 2 hours to plan the trip and leave for it! see blog below), and then headed north to look for work.

The day we headed north, June 23rd, with interviews only in WA, we got a morning email from a Medford clinic -- from an associate in Eugene we had said 'no' to months ago, b/c the only Oregon town we wanted was Medford/Ashland -- and they said they had a sudden Medford opening they needed to fill! Note: with lots of looking, we hadn't come up with any opportunities in Medford/Ashland yet! We were starting to envision ourselves in Bremerton, Olympia, or Bellingham again, but not entirely excited about the weather...

After interviews throughout the PNW and the lone interview in Medford, Medford gets our vote. Mick signs his rockin' two-year contract on Monday with Hayden Family Dentistry, and this family's moving to ASHLAND! We're so excited. Love the place, and love that Mick's cool bro and fam will live there too.

Of course, there's all this deep sadness about leaving Marin, which I've expressed to anyone who will listen before, but I'm a bit assuaged knowing Ashland's just 5 hours from Marin. And I get to keep much of the weather and cultural climate I've loved!

There's also this deep sadness about moving away from SO MANY friends and family who live in Washington, but our big hope is that Ashland will be an appealing destination for them to visit, shacking up with the Reynolds' any day of the year. (We also see WA as a sweet destination point, so they need to keep the air mattress handy for us, too.)

So, we'll be in Ashland next week trying to line up a rental home near downtown (I'm crossing my fingers for a craftsman with a yard) and then we'll be in Marin the last couple weeks of July, hopefully packing up to move.

If I left any details out, leave your comments and I'll spritely write back.